Defrosting: when the freezer resembles the north pole!

It's that time again, when I have to think of various dishes to put together what's in the freezer.

This time I'd like to share the process (last time I only showed the freezer's pictures) and start by telling you what I have in there:

Veggies:
- Frozen tomatoes; Corn; Peas; Brussels Sprouts; Red and green bell peppers;

Meat & fish:
- 2 chorizos and 1 farinheira;
- 3 random beefs (I'm almost sure they're all pork);
- Turkey breasts;
- Crabsticks;
- White fish filetts;

Bread:
- Corn bread;


Adding to the freezer stash, I have some other things I need to use from the fridge like tomatoes, lettuce, cucumber and more bellpeppers that came from my grandparents' farm.

For the next few days I'll be showing how I'm going to use all of these ingredients in delicious plates! They're probably not so apropriate for bento but I'll put them in bento boxes because I am watching my portions and it's the easiest way to do it.

So, here's today's meal:

Whitefish fillets with onion, frozen tomatoes, frozen bellpeppers, 1/4 of sliced chorizo for taste and some spices sided with plain white rice and brussels sprouts.

I am stil dwelling with the new camera on food photos, they all come out a little grainy but I'm getting there :D

In my previous post, I mentioned this bento box, I'm not sure how much I can fill the lower tier with, remember? Well, That's why the brussels are all squished and have the upper tier's print on them, it looks big but I can't fit much in it... I wonder if it's for rice only?

Napolitan spaghetti

It's been a chaotic week! I'm enjoying this more and more every time I make bentos :)

On the top-tier there's, kiwi, tamagoyaki (a little burnt because I used the round frying pan and mirin makes it turn brown a lot faster) some cucumber slices,cheese and ham rolls and spinach with cheese.

On the bottom tier there's the spaghetti, which I made following a recipe from a bento cookbook. It has grated carrot, onion, bacon tomato sauce and red and green bell peppers. The bf said it was like what his mum does at home :D

Since I'm not fond of bacon, I threw it to his bento and kept mine with 2 pieces of it somewhere:

My bento has exactly the same thing but instead of the spinach cheese and the cucumber, I put brussels sprouts (because I love them and he hates them).

I enjoyed making this very much, and feel like I'm starting to get the hang of it my way. I am thinking I should buy some more bento related books or japanese home foods, Do you have any suggestions?

The colour distribution wasn't all that balanced but I ran out of red things to put on the top tiers so, there's green and more green!

Ponyo

We saw "Gake no Ue no Ponyo" this weekend and I really wanted to do something related to the movie. This is what it turned out to be:

Red bell pepper for the body with a hard-boiled egg, turkey ham for the face, carrot for the hair and tongue, nori for the mouth, nose and eye. Underneath it there's shrimp rice. I found it funny to stuff the cherry tomato with broccoli inside :D

At first I wanted to do the girl version but I wasn't sure how to but after scrolling through the movie a few times, I came across one of the parts where I wanted to squeeze the screen.

I was planning to make something for Valentine's day and join the valentine's with red colours to try and enter this month's B.O.M.B Challenge, but something came up and I won't be able to do anything for Valentine's, so I made this. Hopefully you'll be able to recognize it as Ponyo xD.

This was my second attempt on making a character and I will remind myself to either get a surgeon's knife next time, or never cut things out of bell peppers again. It took me about 40 minutes because I messed up the bellpepper and cut it in the wrong direction (the hand should be on the upper part and the eye on the lower part, not the other way around. Then the ham on her face ripped about 2 times so I put 2 slices instead of one and I could go on complaining more but it's pointless. Before posting this I asked 2 friends of mine to tell me what it was, and they guessed it right, so it can't be THAT bad.

I've got the rest of the week planned already so I'll be sure to post some more foodies ^^ Have a nice week!

Farfalle with bell pepper sauce

Today I looked at BookDepository to find that they're giving away free ebooks! I looked through some, searched on something I'm planning on doing (and I'll be sure to post!) and got to some Italian recipes of pasta. All of it combined, got me to make a little experience, and a well succeeded one:

I'm almost finishing the chickpea burgers staple and those fish fingers have been on the freezer for more time than I wanted them to, so this time I tried a different approach: instead of pan-frying and deep frying the fish and the burger, I baked them. The burgers were brushed in a little olive oil because they had no fat in it but the fish fingers didn't so I added nothing. Baking is a bit more useful to make 4 meals at a time than frying because you do it all at once plus you have the fat amount reduced which is a plus.

With the farfalle, I cooked it but there was colour missing (there still is, it's all golden brown green-ish but) so, inspired by the Italian food videos/articles, and the lonely bell pepper in the fridge, I made a little invention which turned out nice. Here's the recipe of it:

- 1 green bell pepper chopped in small pieces;

- 3 cloves of garlic, roughly chopped;

- Olive oil;

- 1/2 teaspoon of fine chopped basil ( I didn't have fresh basil but I bet it would taste a lot better);

- salt, pepper and a little sugar to taste;

- 4 tbspoons tomato sauce (or if you can, replace it for a fresh medium-sized tomato);

Heat the olive oil and when it's hot enough, put the garlic and be careful so it doesn't burn! Don't mince it or it'll burn really fast. When the garlic is golden brown, put the bell pepper and wait for it to cook, remembering to steer it. When it looks cooked, add basil and the tomato sauce and stir frequently until some of the liquid evaporates. Taste it and season to your liking. I had to put a bit of sugar because the tomato sauce was too acid, I use this trick on tomato soup as well to reduce the acidity. After seasoning it, turn off the heat and pour it over the pasta and mix it until all of the pasta has a little of the sauce. Serve warm and it'll taste heavenly ^^

Oh, and please ignore the background, this is something I have to improve because when I take pictures of the food, I usually forget where it is and there were some dishes/silverware drying where I took the pic.

Fish & mashed potatoes

Yesterday the bf asked for fish (he's a meat-lover person) so i gathered up what I had around and made this. Since we had family over, we didn't organize the shopping so much because they always bring things over, so today and tomorrow there's not many vegetables/fruit in the house.

From right to left we have:

- Mashed potatoes with olives on top;

- Saute red bell peppers (with garlic, parsley and basil);

- Boiled fish;

- Cucumber;

- Blanched turnips with oregano and vinegar (and an olive);

The bell pepper and the turnip were turned down by the bf but he ate it. I personally loved the bell pepper. If you turn the tupperware counterclockwise it looks like some kind of monster xD